Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 7:

The BJP today accused the Odisha government of making an attempt to hide its incompetence by misleading the people of the state and alleged that letters were exchanged between it and Chhattisgarh over the controversial Kelo project on the upper catchment of river Mahanadi.

Samir Mohanty BJP vice president

The saffron party placing facts on the dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over the Mahanadi issue told reporters that in 2008 the then Engineer in Chief had sent a letter to Chhattisgarh on the Kelo project. The party alleged that the state government was now hiding that letter to garner political gains.

“Engineer in Chief of Water Resources department of our government S C Behera had written a letter to Chhattisgarh on October 4, 2008, referring to their letter on the project. This letter proves that our state government was aware of it and had kept the people in the dark as a consequence of which the people of the state are being deprived of their due share,” said Samir Mohanty vice president BJP state unit addressing the press conference.

“These letters clearly prove that the state government is pretending to be asleep and is trying to raise a dispute to gain political advantage out of it,” he added.

The BJD, on the other hand, has asked the BJP to make its stand clear vis a vis Odisha’s interests on the Mahanadi issue.

“The BJP should make its stand clear with regard to Odisha’s interest on the Mahanadi issue. So far the confusion arising out of the letters, the BJP has already said that it is going to bring out a white paper on it. The Central government has already admitted that the Central Water Commission has not done a study on how Odisha is going to be affected by projects upstream of Mahanadi. While Odisha is in dark about how it’s going to be  affected by these projects, the BJP pointing fingers at the state government and the administration is unfortunate,” said Sashi Bhusan Behera, BJD spokesperson in his reactions to the allegations made by the BJP over the Mahanadi issue.